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Why Does The Body Need Water? |
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About 60 per cent of the human body is water! If you could squeeze out a human being like a lemon, you would obtain about 50 liters of water.
This water, which is not like ordinary water because of the substances it contains, is necessary to the life of the body.
About a gallon of it is in the blood vessels and is kept circulating by the heart. This blood water bathes all the cells of the body in a constant stream. The water also acts as a conductor of heat through the body.
Even if you drink no water during the day, you take in about a liter of water from the solid foods you eat. So when you eat fruit, vegetables,’ bread, and meat, you are getting water because they are from 30 to 90 per cent water. In addition, the average person takes in about two liters of water as fluids. |
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In the course of a day, about ten quarts of water pass back and forth inside the body between the various organs. For example, when you chew something and swallow it, you suck some saliva from the salivary glands and swallow it. In the next few moments, this water is replaced in the glands by water from the blood vessels. The swallowed water later goes from the stomach and intestine to the blood.
The amount of water in the blood always remains the same. Even though you may feel “dried out” after exercising on a hot day, the blood vessels contain the same amount of water. And no matter how much water you drink, it remains the same.
What happens to the extra water? It is stored away in various parts of the body. These include the intestine, the liver, the muscles, and the kidneys. |
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